The Mosses Collected by Thomas Drummond in Western Canada, 1825-1827

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Many of the place names used by Thomas Drummond (d. 1835) in his narratives and exsiccati series are obscure, misleading, or no longer current. His route of exploration through western Canada is traced. The mosses that he reported are listed with the nomenclature and locality names brought up-to-date. In 1828 Thomas Drummond distributed 286 numbers of an exsiccati series called Musci Americani. These mosses were collected from 1825-1827 while he served as assistant naturalist on the Second Land Arctic Expedition under the command of Captain John Franklin. Many of the exsiccati are critical from taxonomic and phytogeographic viewpoints, and consequently it is important to know where they were collected. Geographical misinterpretations have been made because the narratives (Franklin, 1828; Drummond, 1830) and the information of the exsiccati labels are often vague, and many of the terms used now have different meanings or are of only local application. The following account attempts to clarify his route, the place names on the exsiccati labels, and to bring the nomenclature of the mosses in the narratives up-to-date. This study is restricted to those reports from western Canada, the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia. Drummond had two exsiccati sets with the general title Musci Americani. The one referred to herein is: Musci Americani; or, Specimens of the Mosses Collected in British North America, and Chiefly among the Rocky Mountains, During the Second Land Arctic Expedition under the Command of Captain Franklin, R.N., by Thomas Drummond, Assistant Naturalist to the Expedition. Vols. I, II. Numbers 1-286. Glasgow. 1828. The second one, which is not referred to herein, is: Musci Americani; or, Specimens of Mosses, Jungermanniaceae, &c. Collected by the Late Thomas Drummond, in the Southern States of North America. Arranged and named by W. Wilson and Sir W. J. Hooker. Numbers 1-180. Warrington. 1841. The expedition which resulted in the second exsiccati set is traced in a lively way by Geiser (1948, pp. 55-78).